This invention relates to varicolored, multizoned, viscoelastic materials having a common phase. Preferably, it relates to semi-solid viscoelastic foodstuffs having zoned coloration.
Viscoelastic materials such as flexible soft plastics and gels present a peculiar coloring property. Due to their semi-solid, semi-fluid nature, these materials permit conventional dyes to migrate throughout their entire body. While this migration (which appears as color "spreading" or "leaking") is of no consequence in uniformly colored items, it does pose a problem when a varicolored product is desired. Varicolored products of this type include flexible children's plastic toys, multicolored cosmetic items, rubber objects containing dye-printed labels, and gelled foodstuffs, such as gelatin desserts and pies. Solutions to this problem have offered disadvantages of their own. Particulate colored lakes, while not appreciably migrating in the products, tend to cloud and haze finished products and to present settling problems during processing. Paints and other surface treatments can rub off and present a much different appearance than really desired.